Hidden image game pieces provide a substrate which carries a hidden image that is visible by application of a transformative event. The hidden image typically is a text but may be a graphic image, which is applied to a canvas or substrate. A disguising mask is also carried on the canvas. The hidden image becomes visible often by viewing through a decoder film or sheet but other techniques exist for altering the game piece in order to make the hidden image appear visibly.
Typical hidden image game piece applications involve images printed on a paper or other sheet that carries the hidden image. The substrate is often used for games but may be used for other purposes, such as a message revealing retail discounts. Generally, the widest use of hidden image technology is for use in games for winning prizes or for participating in a prize winning event.
Hidden image technology can be used with display devices other than printed sheets or substrates. For example, an electronic image can be created of a game piece including a hidden image. An electronic canvas carrying the hidden image can be selectively displayed on video devices including screens of mobile computer devices, mobile telephones, personal data assistants, display screens of computer devices, as well as displayed in association with video displays of television. In such display devices. the hidden image is viewable by the user positioning a decoder viewer, for example, a decoder filter in front of the display screen in order to expose the displayed game piece to an additive light source provided by the filter.
While hidden image technology has been used in video display devices, there are drawbacks to the use. The hidden image needs to be prepared in such a way that it is effectively in the background so as to have a reduced visual presence or appearance to the viewer. The viewer's attention should be directed or lead to a foreground image or predominant disguising mask carried on the game piece. The observer's attention, thus, is directed to the disguising mask, and it is not until the decoding viewer is used that the observer then readily detects the hidden image carried on the game piece. While game pieces with text as a hidden image have transferred to video displays, the use of graphic images, for example, photographs of animals, persons, plants, landscapes, and the like have less readily transferred successfully to video presentation. By this, it is meant that observers, in the absence of the decoding viewer, are able to detect and determine at least portions of the hidden image.
Accordingly, there is a need for a game piece having a hidden image presented on a display device for selective viewing with a decoder. It is to such that the present invention is directed.